


For Science, Among Other Things

by dividedAnimus



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Bad Science, Body Horror, Gen, got the portal ost on loop over here, its gonna show up, membrane's a dick in this one, scp vibes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:54:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28882017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dividedAnimus/pseuds/dividedAnimus
Summary: Science is only as ethical as its practitioners, and Zim and Dib come to face this fact head-on.
Kudos: 11





	For Science, Among Other Things

_Subject 00 has breached containment._

_Third Wing lockdown initiated._

The clean linoleum tile squeaked under Dib’s feet as he pulled himself around a corner and pressed his back into the wall. Several pairs of footsteps thundered through the hall he’d just been in moments later, their owners in a hurry. A containment team? Staff? He didn’t care. They weren’t after him, thank god. Not yet. He took a precious minute to catch his breath and try to work through his head where he was. All the halls in this place looked the goddamned same in the normal lighting and it was even worse with the emergency lights bathing everything in harsh red and darker shadows. So instead of thinking about how the halls _looked_ , while trying to focus on his mission and _not_ his rising panic, he thought about turns. The Third Wing wasn’t a very large building, meant only to house him and the thing they called subject 00. He’d tried to memorize the turns he was taken through when he could. It looked like today would be the day he put that mental map to the test.

He needed to get back into the hall he’d pulled himself out of to get back on track. Dib shuffled forward towards the corner. His bare feet didn’t make much sound but he made each step small and light anyway. The immediate silence of his surroundings felt almost like a physical pressure, broken only by the distant sounds of ductwork. He expected alarms – that’s how emergencies were always done in movies – but realistically if you were chasing an escaped something you’d want to hear it moving. The logic didn’t make the red lights flashing in silence any less unsettling. Dib stood and listened. No footsteps, no nothing. He had to go right. _Go!_

He peeled into the hallway at a dead sprint. He had to get out of the Third Wing as fast as possible, before the staff realized he was gone. Dib had been stunned when he first saw the lock on his door simply slide open. With the accompanying announcement he assumed whatever lead to the containment breach was a glitch that affected his room as well. It was a chance he was not going to pass up, especially since tech would make sure it never happened again.

_One…two…_

Doors passed by on both sides. At the t-section coming up ahead he needed to turn-

There was a loud bang from in front of him. He made the split-second choice to dodge right and hide against the wall there. The sound had come from the left, hadn’t it? In response to his thought there was another, muffled bang of something hitting the floor. Oh god, had it been _in the ceiling?_ Despite the terrifying situation that had literally fallen in front of him, he could not help his curiosity. Dib tried to hold his breath, and his pounding heart, inside his chest as he stole a glance sideways at the thing blocking his escape.

Subject 00’s massive bulk was hunched and turned away from him. The red light gleamed off the ridges of its back – a shell? Or maybe natural armor? Something that looked like thick cable trailed behind it. Subject 00 shifted and began to pace slowly away, the horrible clicking of every step sending pins through Dib’s bones. _God what the fuck?!_ What were they keeping here? He turned his gaze away and listened to the clicking, grinding noises recede. Should he even go that way now, and risk getting spotted by subject 00? It was that or run blindly and try his luck while containment were otherwise preoccupied. It turned out he wouldn’t have time to weigh on the decision.

_Activate subject 0-B._

_Fuck!_ The flat voice of the intercom spurred the barely-contained panic that had been rising in Dib the whole time. He took off without even thinking of where he was going, now more aware than ever of the number embroidered on his shirt. The secret of his escape would die soon, when his room was found empty. He had even less time now to figure himself out, and he had to use it wisely. Which was hard when he was also focused on threats including-but-not-limited-to a mysterious monster roaming the halls and whatever the hell they wanted with _him._

Heavy, booted footsteps again, quickly approaching. God. No. That was containment. Dib whirled around, pulling something slightly in his ankle and losing a bit of balance in the process. He was completely lost now and didn’t know enough of the Third Wing to get himself oriented again, but that just didn’t matter anymore when staying alive was more important than a clean escape. If fate decided to cut him just one break today he’d run into the exit on accident and no one would be any the wis-

A dark shadow crossed the hall in front of him and he slammed to a stop. He was completely exposed with no corners to hide behind this time. He should still try running, he knew that, maybe try a door in the vain hope it wasn’t locked. Instead he stood there half-crouched in the middle of the open hallway, unable to force his body to move as subject 00 came into full view.

The thing was a biomechanical nightmare. It crouched on spindly, yet powerful-looking legs, seeming to prefer to keep its second set of forelimbs tucked away from the ground. Each one of its six limbs ended in wickedly sharp claws that clicked against the floor nearly the same as its segmented joints did against each other. Its hulking carapace was veined with twisted metal. The material made smooth, organic shapes and glowed softly in little nodes that appeared along its surface at random. Whatever it was looked to be embedded in the monster’s flesh, following the body’s curves and ridges in a way that didn’t seem quite natural – like a tree forced to grow around a foreign object. A pair of thick black feelers skittered about in front of its horrible face. Dib didn’t want to look it in the eyes but he was inevitably drawn to them. The eyes were huge and pupil-less. Their surface caught the flash of the alarm lights and appeared to glow. He’d never seen eyes like that on any animal before, but he got the distinct impression they were predatory and malicious.

Subject 00’s feelers drifted towards him before it stopped and swung its head in his direction. There was a tense moment of absolute stillness before its face split open in a horrific grin that revealed segmented facial plating and way more teeth than Dib would have thought possible. It lunged after him with a frightening speed that did not match its size. The sudden movement finally got Dib’s stupid brain to connect with the rest of his body again and he whirled around to run from it, though the effort was fruitless at this point. As if to add further insult to how fucked he was his toes got caught on his opposite pant leg as he turned to run, sending him facedown hard on the cold floor. There was a sharp pain in his jaw and left arm that he couldn’t even think about before solid pressure was applied to his whole back and he saw gleaming talons out of his peripherals; the thing had him in its claws. 

There was an awful scrape that made Dib involuntarily clench his hands as the claws skimmed the floor’s surface and closed in on him. Subject 00 lifted him in its front limbs until they were staring face to horrible face. The flashing lights seemed to swim in its bulging eyes, giving the illusion of movement deep within. Dib’s breath came in shallow gasps as he stared at the thing, not only because fear was trying desperately to keep his breath locked in his chest but because it was holding him far too tightly. It’s grip was firm enough to squeeze just a little more air out of him with every exhale.

Being held captive inches from the monster’s face clearly wasn’t enough, because then Subject 00 opened its mouth again and started vocalizing. None of the other noises it made were comparable to this. Its voice was harsh and guttural, a creaking and clicking thing that had clawed its way out of the deepest sci-fi horror. The sounds were interspersed with hissing that exposed its long pointed tongue. Dib wanted to shrink in on himself in a desperate attempt to get away, but there was hardly any room to struggle in his current position. Moving at all was hard enough without sufficient oxygen getting to his brain. In some dim corner of his mind he wondered how long he had before he passed out and didn’t have to face this nightmare.

Subject 00 ceased its “speech” and narrowed its eyes at him, the corners of its mouth turning down somewhat. Those eyes filled his vision; all he could look at. The rest of the dark hallway looked even darker in comparison as it crept in the edge of his view. Subject 00 made more weird noises at him and shoved its face closer to his. Dib closed his eyes and turned his face away. His chest hurt. He didn’t want to die here, captive in a world he hated at the hands of a monster he knew nothing about. Records of his demise wouldn’t even make it out of the building. He didn’t want to die like this. He didn’t want to die.

It was pathetic, but there was no place for pride in the current situation. Dib couldn’t help the soft word that escaped him; “Please…”

There was a long moment of silence. Dib kept his eyes shut like a child wishing the monsters in the dark would go away if only they couldn’t be seen. Then movement; a rush forward and the sound of galloping, sharp footsteps. His head felt light. He opened his eyes a sliver and found he couldn’t even see the emergency lights anymore. He couldn’t think about that though. Too fuzzy. It was easier to keep his eyes closed than he thought. So he shut the lab away again and gratefully let consciousness leave him.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya! So this is gonna be the first multichapter work I ever post online. I hope you stick around for the ride.  
> This started as a tiny idea back in October and is very inspired by the Halloween episode; I am so intrigued by the designs of Nightmare Membrane and Gaz, and am honestly disappointed we didn't get a Nightmare Zim, so I'm hoping I can get some of that spooky vibe into this thing. But like, bad science spooky.
> 
> comments are appreciated and they give me life, please and thank you


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